Showcasing work by L&C students as well as artists from the Portland community and elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest, this art exhibit expressed complex issues of hybrid identities of race and ethnicity.

Andrew Jolivétte is associate professor in American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University. He is the editor of Cultural Representation in Native America and author of Louisiana Creoles: Cultural Recovery and Mixed-Race Native American Identity. He is currently working on a book titled Mixed Race Gay Men and HIV: A Community History. He also serves as board president of the Institute for Democratic Education and Culture/SpeakOut, as well as iPride, an organization for mixed heritage and transracially adopted youth and their families. Jolivétte holds a PhD in sociology from University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dmae Roberts is an independent radio artist and writer who has written and produced more than 400 audio art pieces and documentaries for National Public Radio and Public Radio International. She has received Peabody awards for the documentary Mei Mei, a Daughter’s Song, which is a harrowing account of her mother’s childhood in Taiwan during WWII, and Crossing East, an eight-hour Asian American history series. Roberts is also executive producer of MediaRites, a non-profit organization dedicated to multicultural arts production in radio and educational outreach. A USA Rockefeller fellow, she is working on her memoir, Lady Buddha and the Temple of Ma.

Thursday, November 12

1:45-3:15 pm, Stamm
Interracial Relationships, Adoption, and Identity
When we think about our personal identities, we often look to our families. What does it mean to come from a “mixed” family? What is the impact of intermarriage and transnational adoption on family dynamics? How does racial or ethnic identity affect interactions with siblings, parents, and other relatives?

3:30-5:00 pm, Stamm
Remix: Identities and Artistic Expression
Art has often been an outlet for communicating ideas about race and ethnicity. How is “hybridity” expressed and represented through different artistic forms? This panel will explore the ways in which artists, writers, and performers use language, musical styles, and other techniques to express their identities.

Kim Williams, Associate Professor of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University

Introduced by Chris Wendt, L&C Assistant Professor of Political Science

Kim Williams, Associate Professor of Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, conducts research and teaches courses focusing on racial politics and immigration policy in the United States. Her first book, Mark One or More: Civil Rights in Multiracial America, explores the U.S. Census and the racial classification system. She was also appointed to serve on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Advisory Committee on the African-American Population. Currently, she is working on her second book, Transition: The Politics of Racial and Ethnic Change in Urban America. Williams received a PhD in government from Cornell University.

Friday, November 13

1:45-3:15 pm, Stamm
Indigeneity and Cultural Exchange
Many people celebrate racial and ethnic mixing as a way to end discrimination by erasing lines that divide us. Others view mixing as a potential threat to distinctive cultural traditions and identities. How does mixing affect those who identify with indigenous groups, and what are the implications for the way the group defines itself? Additionally, how does cultural interaction take place during the mixing process? How have native groups influenced the dominant culture? At the same time, how have indigenous groups addressed the threat of appropriation and the possible deterioration of indigenous group identity?

3:30-5:00 pm, Stamm
Nation-Building and Mixed Populations
This panel looks beyond the United States to explore the idea of “mixing” in other national contexts. How has mixing developed in different places, and how has that process affected individual identities and notions of nationalism? To what extent does national identity encompass multiracial and multiethnic individuals? On a larger scale, how have forces like immigration, colonialism, and globalization contributed to or impeded the formation of hybrid populations?